Parliamentary breakfast & EASN workshop on upstream research

Hosted by MEP Dr. Dieter-Lebrecht Koch, the EASN Association organised on Tuesday, February 16th 2016 a Parliamentary Breakfast in the premises of the European Parliament. Under the title "Taking off to the future of European Aviation; is aviation science still on board?" several Members of the European Parliament (MEP) as well as numerous participants from the aviation community were present to be informed and to discuss on highly relevant topics, such as:

• Academic research for seamless and affordable air transport in Europe
• Intermodality as innovation driver
• Innovation and breakthrough technologies in aviation as an indispensable condition to ensure competitiveness and global leadership of the European Aviation
• Open dissemination of knowledge and breakthrough technologies to ensure trans-sectorial exploitation of innovation
• How to achieve an integrated European aviation education system

The Parliamentary Breakfast was directly followed by a workshop on "Academic aviation research in the light of the new realities; are we actually performing the research we need?" organized by EASN and hosted by the European Commission, DG Research and Innovation. The workshop followed up the discussion opened at the Parliamentary Breakfast, but deepened and extended to analyse technical, educational and financial challenges more in detail and to work on practical solutions.

The debate was conducted in a very constructive atmosphere with important contributions from renowned personalities in the European Aviation community. The challenge of maintaining aviation science on-board was presented and, in view of the increasing international competition and the new realities of the 21st century, the indispensable role of Universities in the research and innovation chain was emphasised. It was the common view that this role is a prerequisite for maintaining global leadership of Europe in Aviation.

Resulting from the fruitful discussions of both, the Parliamentary Breakfast and the Workshop, EASN was encouraged and committed to initialise a process among the related stakeholders, of formulating a specific concept and roadmap on how to better integrate innovative and upstream research activities in the current EU schemes.

Parliamentary Breakfast Speakers

1. Dr. Dietrich Knorzer, European Commission, DG Research & Innovation, RTD-H.3 - Aviation
2. Prof. Spiros Pantelakis, Chairman of EASN, University of Patras, view his positioning here

EASN Open Workshop Presentations

• What is the importance of fundamental research to aerospace Industry in the 21st Century?
Prof. Dieter Schmitt, Aeronautical Consultant, EASN honorary member, view presentation

• Academic research: industrial subcontractor or independent innovation driver.
Dr. Helge Pfeiffer, General Secretary EASN, University of Leuven, view presentation

• Do the European Universities have the right tools to promote innovative research?
Prof. Dr.-Ing Joachim Szodruch, Board Member German Aerospace Centre (ret.)

• What about basic research opportunities within the industry?
Mr. Eric Dautriat, Executive Director of Clean Sky Joint Undertaking, view presentation

• Does the European education system have the appropriate mechanisms to foster and promote innovative thinking?
Prof.dr.ir. Leo Veldhuis, TU Delft (Delft University of Technology), view presentation

Closer collaboration between EASN and CEAS

CEAS, the council of European Aerospace Societies and EASN, after recognizing the need for better and closer collaboration among the two societies, have jointly agreed upon a Memorandum of Understanding which is intended to serve for the development of a mutually beneficial scientific, technological and organizational cooperation between the two Parties. Among others, the two parties have agreed to the mutual exchange of information related to European Aviation activities and the joint organization of sessions and/or events to promote the developments and popularize the achievements of the sector. The singing act took place on March 15th during the CEAS trustees Board Meeting and the MoU was signed on behalf of EASN by its vice-chairman Prof. Zdobyslaw Goraj and, on behalf of CEAS, by its president Prof. Fred Abbink.

EASN celebrates the presence of women in the aviation and aerospace family with three interviews

On 15 December 2015, the U.N. General Assembly adopted the resolution, deciding to proclaim 11 February of each, the International Day of Women and Girls in Science. It is difficult to believe that in the 21st century, with so much emphasis on gender equality in the workplace, women are still vastly under-represented in the aviation and aerospace sectors. Officially, there are no restrictions for women to study and seek a career in aviation, however, the statistics might make one wonder – is aviation a men’s world only? In an effort to raise awareness to this ever-present issue, as well as find out what barriers exist and what can be done to address them, EASN has spoken with three very successful Women/role models working in Aviation. Valérie Guénon is SAFRAN’s VP Technology Strategy and you can find her interview here. Alexandra Karanika is the Project Engineer Scheduling of Research Projects at the Hellenic Aerospace Industry S.A., read her interview here. Maria Angeles Martin Prats is Associate Professor at University of Seville, she is the main founder of a Spin Off of University of Seville, Skylife Engineering and you can see her interview here.

6th EASN annual International Conference
on Innovation in European Aeronautics Research October 18 - 21, 2016 • Porto, Portugal

Together with the Institute of Science and Innovation In Mechanical and Industrial Engineering (INEGI), EASN is preparing an original programme for attendees to present, share, debate and conclude on the latest science and research achievements. This year’s program will include Plenary Sessions by renowned speakers and Open Discussions with distinguished researchers from the industry and academia. Thematic Sessions housing the 90% of current European aeronautics research programs and Technical Workshops.

View and download the Call for Abstracts here.

Tell me and I forget

Teach me and I remember

Involve me and I learn

With Benjamin Franklin’s motto in mind, the 6th EASN gathering will emphasise into the enhancement of synergies. The structure of the event will emphasise into the enhancement of synergies between researchers through interactive sessions. As such, it presents an excellent opportunity for discussing, networking and creating alliances for future collaborations on a bilateral basis or in the frame of multilateral projects. Participants will also have the opportunity to discover the secrets of the city of Porto and participate in a series of thematic, technical and recreational tours.
The 6th Conference is set to be the first to see a purposeful exhibition zone and we are keen to create a unique event experience for the participants. Therefore we are offering, to a limited number of companies, an exclusive and one off opportunity to demonstrate their work for free! This is an ideal opportunity to showcase your work to those who matter for your business as it instantly puts you in the heart of the aeronautics community. Contact us today and find out more!
More information about the Conference will be posted on a regular basis on the EASN website as well as on the 6th EASN International Conference minisite.

Clean Sky Forum “Innovative European aeronautics powering a stronger EU"

The Clean Sky Forum will bring together many Clean Sky Members and Partners as well as aeronautics’ stakeholders and representatives from the European Parliament and the European Commission. This year’s Forum will focus on three main areas of interest within Clean Sky: research centres and academia as a source of innovation; newcomers in Clean Sky 2; and Synergies with regional Structural Funds. Also not to be missed is the Awards presentation for the Best Clean Sky Projects from Partners.
Confirmed Speakers:

• MEP Monika Hohlmeier, Chair of Sky and Space Intergroup
• MEP Christian Ehler
• MEP Martina Dlabajová
• Rudolf Strohmeier, Deputy Director General, RTD, European Commission
• Ric Parker, Chair of Clean Sky Governing Board, Director of R&T, Rolls-Royce
• Joshua Salsby, Member of Cabinet, Cabinet of Commissioner Violeta Bulc
• Axel Flaig, Head of Airbus Research and Technology, Airbus
• Eric Dautriat, Clean Sky Executive Director
• Bruno Sainjon, Chair of EREA
• Bruno Stoufflet, Vice-President R&D and Advanced Business, Dassault Aviation
• Hester Bijl, Dean Faculty of Aerospace Engineering, University of Delft
• Peter Hecker, Chair of Clean Sky Scientific Committee
• Spiros Pantelakis, EASN Chairman, University of Patras
• Carmen Sillero, Head of Division, Strategy and Programmes, Andalucía Region
• Katja Reppel, Deputy Head of Unit, D.G. Regional and Urban Policy
• Tomáš Novotný, Deputy Minister for Industry and Trade of Czech Republic
• Amedeo Lepore, Regional Minister for Industry of Campania Region

You may view the Clean Sky Forum Programme here and Registration here.

EFFICOMP (Efficient Composite parts manufacturing) is a RIA collaboration established between Europe and Japan, aiming to contribute to the reduction of costs and increase of ramp up production of composite parts for structural applications on aerospace products. The project will target a TRL 4-5 for innovative, cost- and time-efficient technologies with regards to material cost reduction, new heating solutions (e.g. resistive heating), new concepts in the mold environment, forming and assembly processes of composite parts, as well as sparking detection. EFFICOMP’s successful results will contribute to the increasing demand of new aircrafts, by facilitating the development of composite parts, thus significantly reducing the overall aircraft weight (with direct impact on cost) and putting into effect a greener aviation.
The project, which consists of five (5) European and four (4) Japanese partners, will further contribute to deepening and widening the existing cooperation between Europe and Japan, by exploring topics of mutual interests.
EFFICOMP will be officially launched on April 2016 and will have duration of 36 months.

Cold Spray trials carried out on Al alloys using the CGT Kinetiks 4000 and Impact Innovations 5/11 systems, suggest that process conditions of 500°C and 60bar result in ultra-high density coatings (<0.4% porosity) for the tested powder feedstock. Cold Spray trials were also carried out on Ti alloys, using the maximum available gas temperature and pressure of the CGT Kinetiks 4000/47 system. Under these conditions, the coating porosity is relatively high, while coating adhesion remains low. The deposition of coatings at higher process temperature and pressure is currently in progress using the newly installed Impact Innovations 5/11 system. The metallographic analysis indicates a 50% reduction in coating porosity compared to previous best coatings deposited using the CGT Kinetiks 4000/47 system. At the same time, the CORSAIR Industrial Portable Cold Spray Unit was finally assembled and tested. The system requires an N₂ gas supply, compressed air and electrical connectivity, while it can be easily transported to the repair site. The CORSAIR Industrial Portable Cold Spray Unit comprises of a removable powder feeder and gas preheater, thus allowing access up to 7m from the unit itself and enabling the repair of areas with limited accessibility. The next step will be the repair of representative components and their evaluation in terms of NDT, Structural and Microstructural examination, mechanical properties and surface protective treatments, as well as the study of the suitable pre- and post-treatments to get the optimal coating properties.
For more information, please visit our website, image gallery and video gallery.

Top-Left: Cold Spray of Al alloys; Effect of increasing traverse speed. Coating porosity at 500°C decreases from ≈5% using 20mm/s, to ≈3% using 100mm/s
Top-Right: Cold Spray of Al alloys; Effect of increasing process gas temperature. Increasing process gas temperature from 350°C to 500°C reduces coating porosity from ≈5% to ≈3%
Bottom-left: Cold Spray of Ti alloys; Examples of Ti-6Al-4V microstructures corresponding to as sprayed coating (left) and after heat treatment for 1hr under argon at 950oC (right).
Bottom-Right: Cold Spray of Ti alloys; Metallographic cross sections of Ti-6Al-4V coatings deposited using higher gas pressure and temperature (1100°C, 50bar) with the Impact Innovation 5/11 system showing a low porosity level of 1.8 ± 0.3%, without any heat treatment

i-VISION has completed the first half of its final year and is on the road to the next General Assembly meeting to be held in April 2016 in Athens, Greece. Some of the key highlights of this period include the delivery of the description of the following final modules: the Human – Cockpit Operation Analysis, the Semantic Virtual Cockpit and the Virtual Cockpit Design Environment which will interconnect so as to develop the final i-Vision tool. With this fully-functional prototype, a pilot will be able to fly a virtual aircraft in virtual reality and the i-VISION tool will be able to track and replay his actions in order to proceed to human factors analysis. The advanced Virtual Reality (VR) environment is expected to be used as a reusable and low-cost simulation test-bed for experimenting with various configurations and set-ups of virtual cockpits so as to allow the human-centred assessment of future cockpit architectures. In a nutshell, the overall progress is meeting and in individual cases exceeding expectations regarding the i-VISION outcomes which will be a common platform for VR & Cockpit related projects, the reduction authoring costs for the preparation of virtual cockpit experimentations and the Set of public APIs for further developments.
For more information please visit the i-VISION website.

The SUNJET II consortium has the pleasure to announce the SUNJET II Forum on "Europe-Japan Cooperation in the domain of R&T for Aviation" which will be held on the 2nd of June 2016 during the ILA-Berlin Airshow at the Berlin ExpoCenter airport.
The SUNJET II forum objectives are twofold: During the first part, the forum aims at clearly demonstrating the benefits of working together through a number of presentations of successful EU-Japan common research activities. This will be followed by a series of presentations aiming at presenting to the participants the currently available opportunities, as well as some practical advice on how to efficiently engage in common activities.
You may view and download the draft agenda here. Stay tuned for updated information about the event and registration here.

The PERSEUS project has completed its first year of activity and so far all planned activities have been completed in due time. The PERSEUS team has successfully held its Mid-Term Review meeting in Prague on February 2, 2016. During the meeting, the main results and achievements of the project’s 1^st year of activity were presented, as well as an open discussion on possible changes for the 2^nd year took place. The original goal to define a specific accreditation system for aerospace studies across Europe has now been reoriented into the definition of a sound measure of quality of the aerospace education provided at the EU Universities. This reorientation allows focusing the PERSEUS project on the skills needed for the highest qualification of the aerospace graduates and on the method to assess them, leaving the definition of the formal accreditation as a proposal for the sustainability of the process in the future.
Lastly, PERSEUS has recently launched an Industry survey aiming to identify the needs and requirements of the European Aerospace Industries, in terms of knowledge and skills of graduated aerospace engineers in 3 to 5 years. The results will be exploited to better orientate the European aerospace engineering education and training programmes to answer the industry needs. You may participate in this survey here.
For more information please visit the PERSEUS project website.

CAPPADOCIA (Coordination Action Pro “Production, Avionics, Design” on Cost-efficiency in Aeronautics) has successfully completed two full years of operation. Aiming to review of the state of the art of research and innovation and provide strategic recommendations to address existing gaps and bottlenecks, interviews and regional working sessions were held all over Europe to collect information and opinions from key R&D persons. Furthermore, two dedicated workshops as part of international meetings were organised and held. To reach a wide audience and increase potential attendance, these dedicated CAPPADOCIA workshops were held as sessions during two major European events where the RTD audience was relevant for the targeted expertise: the 5^th EASN Workshop on Aerostructures and Aerodays 2015.
Subsequently, the CAPPADOCIA Consortium has conducted a two-days writing session, on the 3rd and 4th of December 2015, in Madrid – Spain, at the Aernnova facilities. The first day of the session was devoted to the compilation of previously identified and collected materials into the proposed structure of the CAPPADOCIA 2^nd Year Recommendations Report. During the second day of the session, a final review of the 2nd Year Recommendations Report took place, making sure that the produced document is fully consensual and fully representative of the AAT sectors. Also, the CAPPADOCIA partners exploited this gathering by conducting a 24Months General Assembly meeting whereby an overview of the main activities, achievements and progress performed during the second year of the project was presented, as well as the next steps to be made throughout the upcoming months were discussed and planned ahead.
For more information please visit the CAPPADOCIA project website.

CATER, the Coordinating Air transport Time Efficiency Research project, is running since end 2015 with Finmeccanica as project coordinator. The project is reaching some interesting results coming from the analysis of the state-of-the-art, from R&I capability as well as from the ongoing impact assessment of Time Efficiency goals. In the last period, CATER has also launched and started populating the CASK platform, a search and knowledge management environment that gives access to a community area to look for relevant information in an extensive database and classify it to make it easier for the community its retrieval. Currently, the platform comprises about 9 millions of EU patents, more than 18 million of scientific papers, public funding opportunities, funded research project for R&I, ideas for new projects in addition to URLs crawled and indexed. Moreover, CASK platform offers a fully featured Document Management System (DMS) to manage files of interest for the community.
We invite you to sign to CASK following this link https://web.cater-transport-time-efficiency.eu/signup.html, it is for FREE and you will have the chance to provide your opinion about the services and information offered. Please, do not hesitate to contact us (and to notify your registration if you wish) for any further information/support on CASK environment: m.molicacolella[at]ciaotech.com

SUNJET II, the SUstainable Network for Japan-Europe aerospace research and Technology cooperation II, has launched the SUNJET II collaboration platform. You may join here!
The SUNJET II platform is dedicated to promoting EU-Japan collaboration in the field of aviation, to supporting networking, exchange of information and the organization of events and to shedding light on the project collaboration process when working with EU and Japan. Analyzing the process and the lessons learnt from previous and ongoing EU-Japan projects, the SUNJET II platform offers customized collaboration solutions for individuals and organisations.
Specifically, the platform provides the search tools to identify suitable partners and sets the online environment to facilitate partners’ collaboration and communication. Beyond the partnership search, the platform provides guidance material collected from partners involved in past and ongoing EU-Japan projects.
The collaboration platform already contains more than 150 profiles from which you can search for potential partners. Visitors are able to create a profile by registering and then use the tools and the information of the platform.
You may view and download the platform presentation and quick guide here.

EASN-TIS launches a series of training courses.
EASN-TIS has recently launched a new series of training and consulting services for the development and implementation of strategies, techniques, processes, and monitoring systems. By taking strength from our vast network of experienced professionals who provide us with extensive knowledge of the private industry, government enterprises and European institutions, we work on developing leading and comprehensive training courses and seminars. The first of our training services was created to serve the observed need for a better and deeper understanding of the financial reporting environment within the EU funded projects. Through our involvement in several research projects we have noticed the challenges several of our partners face when it comes to implementing EU’s financial regulations and requirements. For this reason, we prepared in collaboration with EFMC, a three days course on “Financial Management of EC Projects, from the fundamentals to dealing with the audit procedure”. Training is led by Raphaël de Vivans, a former external auditor of the EC, who for 3 years was in charge of on-the-spot controls of beneficiaries to ensure that their accounting and recording systems comply with the financial requirements of the RTD contract. He is supported by the managing director and the entire team of EANS-TIS, who contribute with their experience and know-how to the success of the course. This unique training sessions will take participants from the basics of the EU projects environment, all the way to mastering financial management. Until now, 7 courses in different cities across Europe have been announced and at the moment the next with available seats is in Munich, between 17th and 19th of May, 2016.
You can find out more information here.

FUture Cabin for the Asian Market (FUCAM) was officially launched during the two day Kick-Off Meeting held on February 25th and 26th at the AIRBUS premises located in Munich, Germany.
During this event, the partners had the opportunity to meet and decide upon the activities and interactions to be realized in the first months of the project.
FUCAM is a 3-year collaborative project with Japan comprising 8 research and industrial partners from 7 European countries and aims to develop a conceptual cabin interior design dedicated to the Asian market. Clothing, food, travel and housing are the four basic necessities especially in Asian culture and life quality. FUCAM project will reflect these particular priorities of Asian culture. The FUCAM project is a great opportunity for the European partners to better understand the Asian market, to demonstrate their capabilities in terms of research and innovation and to establish long-term trust partnership with their Japanese counterparts.

The UMRIDA project is now on its final year of development, and recent progress will be presented in a special session, as a part of the upcoming SIAM Conference on Uncertainty Quantification (UQ16). Aiming to improve Uncertainty Quantification towards industrial readiness, the UMRIDA partners have developed new tools for predicting and reducing geometry and operational uncertainties, such as boundary conditions in 3D simulations. Newly developed methods are tested against industrial challenges, in order to demonstrate the most optimized methods for quantifying uncertainties.. Methods to incorporate a large number of uncertainties into an efficient and accurate robust design optimization process are progressing as expected and are being evaluated using the UMRIDA basic test cases. The guidelines and experiences on the influence of different robustness formulations will be established by using various applications from analytical functions to industrial test cases. The UMRIDA Final Workshop on Uncertainty Quantification (UQ) and Robust Design Optimization (RDO) will take place on September 20-21, 2016 at the premises of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB), in Brussels, Belgium. The following cases will be examined and discussed and are open to participants: NASA rotor 37, RAE 2822 airfoil, DLR F6 wing-body, Business Jet Configuration.
For more information, please visit the workshop site here.

The European project TOICA (32 partners) has organized a one day dedicated minisymposium (MS 1401) within the ECCOMAS Congress (5 - 10 June 2016, Crete Island, Greece) to present its final achievements. Presentations and demonstrations will show how TOICA contributes to delivering thermally optimised architectures by developing new trade-off mechanisms, new pyramids of models enabling earlier and more reliable assessments, new methods for more robust and deeper integration of functions, and finally, new capabilities enabling architects to explore more agilely the design space.
These presentations will be based on the demonstrations performed during the TOICA final Plateaus (May 2016) animated by thermal architects and experts, during which the benefits associated with the TOICA results will be assessed and measured.
For more information please visit www.toica-fp7.eu

How attractive is business aviation as employer? European Business Aviation Association EBAA is analysing the attractiveness and working conditions of the sector for graduates and young job holders in aviation. The questions at the core of this study are: How do young professionals perceive different aviation sectors? What is the employer brand? What are specific demands of graduates?
Thanks for inviting graduates and young job holders in aviation to fill out our short survey (5 min.) for them to get the chance to win a free entry to the Business Aviation Airshow in May 2016 (more on the show: ebace.aero). To access to the survey just click here. Wishing all good luck!

The CROP project (Cycloidal Rotor Optimized for Propulsion) introduces an innovative propulsion system for aircraft based on the cycloidal rotor concept, using an integrated approach that includes the electric drive train, airframe integration and an environmentally friendly energy source.
The CROP system is supported on a multi-physics approach: 1. The high thrust is obtained by unsteady-based cycloidal rotor operation; 2. The development of low-weight electric power drives for the system; 3. Airframe re-design to accomplish optimum integration of the cycloidal propulsor; The strengths of the CROP concept are: a) High thrust levels by using unsteady airflows; b) Low weight by using an integrated design approach between airframe and cycloidal propulsor; c) The revolutionary CROP propulsion concept will introduce new air-vehicle concepts, overcoming traditional limitation on short take-off and landing, including hovering capability.
The project ended in 2015 with the public presentation of a full electric demonstrator. This enabled to achieve TRL 2 in most of the systems of the ciclogiro. A large scope of publications allowed to establish Europe as leader on the advance of ciclorotor technology. At present the project partners are extending the partner network to include new institutions and submit a follow-up to achieve TRL 4 in the coming years.
Please find more information here.

New 4D ice shape mapping technique developed at the lab of the University of Applied Sciences in Graz.
Ice accretion in aviation is still a serious safety hazard. For studying ice accretion experimentally and building a validation base for appropriate simulation tools, it is desirable to document experimental ice accretion processes as detailed as possible.
Therefore, a time resolved 3D-scanning method was developed, which allows the accurate and efficient documentation of the complete ice accretion process. That generated set of data can be used to study the digitized icing process and to extract the needed information.
Find more information here.

Chalmers University of Technology has two open postdoctoral positions:

1. Postdoctoral position in CFD and CAA analysis of noise generation, propagation and control for aeronautical applications, view details here.
2. Postdoctoral position in LES/DNS for reducing drag by controlling turbulent boundary layers, view details here.

The application deadline is May 1st, 2016.